Watching some Whales... It's an Oki Thing!

Saturday we FINALLY got to go Whale Watching, something I have been wanting to do since I arrived on this little island three years ago!  Every year something has come up that interrupted or kept us from going. The first year I had just arrived on island and the season ended, then the next year I was deployed until May and then last year we had our trip all planed with our best friends and their kid and the devastating earthquake hit mainland Japan, a Tsunami warning hit Okinawa and the subsequent nuclear crisis hit mainland! Even this year we had a cancellation due to harsh conditions so I was super excited to finally get to go! That excitement faded a little after waking up at 7 to be on the boat at 730 and then riding around for three hours waiting to find some whales in a huge ocean! Finally though when all hope seemed lost our captain pulled up to where five other boats were waiting (usually a sure sign of some action) and sure enough they were watching and following a Mama Whale and her calf! (In the picture they had just come up together but it is really hard to catch them when they come up. You can just see the baby whale's fin going back into the water!)

Some of the other boats would get right up on top of the whales! It was SO rude! We would get a perfect shot of a whale or them coming up and another boat would pull right in front of us! In some of the pictures you can see just how close the other boats were getting to the whales, I am surprised some of them have not been hit! 

All in all it turned out to be a good trip! I wish I had gotten a picture or two of the whales coming head first out of the water or a couple of good tail pictures but I am happy with the experience to witness these magnificent HUGE creatures in their natural habitat during their yearly mating season in the waters off of Okinawa! It really was a once in a lifetime opportunity!

I took Saturday off from working out and ended up sleeping most of the day aside from having to go into work briefly but I did Saturday's workout on Sunday therefore Insanity Days 6 and 7 are complete and 8 will be completed before I go into work today!  I am planning on doubling up the workout on one day this week so that I can officially adjust my workout schedule to being off every Saturday and starting the new week on Sunday! With our scheduling and us usually having our friends over on Friday nights until sometime Saturday it will be easier and more private if I switch it up like this! Hope you guys have a good week! I'm off to workout and then work!

One more picture for the road! The best one to show how big the whales are!